Ofcom has set out recommended ways to check which of the UK's social media users are over 16, ahead of a ban due in March, the BBC reported. Under the planned ban, under-16s will be blocked from 10 of the biggest platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Many adults are also likely to have to confirm they are not underage, using measures that still need government approval. A similar ban was introduced in Australia last year, but many children there have found ways around it. The UK says it intends to take a tougher approach. Age checks below 18 are difficult because 16- and 17-year-olds often lack credit cards, full driving licences, or passports, and can look older or younger than they are.
In addition to traditional ID, Ofcom recommended four methods it called "highly effective": photo-ID matching, in which a passport or similar document is checked against a live image; banking-based checks using a financial institution's records; face-age estimation technology, which the regulator says has improved; and digital ID services that let people prove who they are or share their age. It will be up to the platforms to implement checks and comply. Ofcom CEO Dame Melanie Dawes said the regulator was drawing on last year's tougher age checks for porn sites. "What we've learned ... is that actually what a lot of countries did before us was say you need to do it this way and they were very prescriptive and it didn't work," she told the BBC. "So what we've said all along is here are things that can work, they must preserve privacy, they must protect people's data, but it's on you to put in place what you think works for you."
Some tech companies, including Meta, have called for age verification at the device level, so underage users would be blocked from installing social apps in app stores. Meta told the BBC it already uses some Ofcom-recommended methods, but that device-level checks via Apple and Google could reduce repeated verification across platforms. Apple has already introduced age verification in the UK. Ofcom said that would not absolve social networks from doing their own checks. The regulator did not have a firm number for how many adults would need to prove they are not underage, but conceded it would be a "large number of accounts." It also acknowledged that "the risk of circumvention cannot be entirely eliminated."
Dawes said making the ban work would be a joint effort: Ofcom's job is to make sure companies put the needed checks in place. The verified news is a menu of recommended methods, not a finished technical standard, and not a promise that no teenager will get through.